256 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



provide then for this growing demand for instruction in the 

 sciences, with special reference to their applications in the 

 industries of life, and to compensate for the inadequateness 

 of the original endowment, Congress has this year [1890] 

 passed an act, supplementing that of 1862, in further aid 

 of the agricultural and mechanical colleges, granting an 

 equal amount to each state. In doing this it has but fol- 

 lowed the general tendency of the age. "The government 

 of every leading country outside of the United States has 

 recognized the necessity of providing on a large and gener- 

 ous scale for the establishment and maintenance of scien- 

 tific instruction of every grade, from the primary to the 

 highest, and it is everywhere regarded as one of the first 

 duties of statesmanship to see that the citizens of the 

 country are not left behind in the race of modern com- 

 petition for lack of any resource that science can bring to 

 their aid. The margin of profit in the competition of 

 modern industries is so small and so closely calculated 

 that the best instructed people will be the winning people." 



The Massachusetts Agricultural College is located at 

 Amherst. The act of incorporation by which it was es- 

 tablished became a law April 29, 1863, while the accept- 

 ance of the congressional grant was declared eleven days 

 before. The College is under the control of a board of 

 trustees, consisting of the Governor of the Commonwealth, 

 the Secretary of the Board of Education, the Secretary of 

 the Board of Agriculture, and the President of the Faculty, 

 as ex-officio members, and fourteen others appointed by the 

 Governor for a term of seven years. The appointed mem- 

 bers are divided into seven classes, so that two vacancies 

 in their number regularly occur each year. The board was 



